In 1954, François Truffaut wrote an essay entitled A Certain Tendency
in French Cinema. In this work he claimed that film is a great medium
for expressing the personal ideas of the director. He suggested that this
meant that the director should therefore be regarded as an auteur.
In fact, Truffaut once provocatively said that: "There
are no good and bad movies, only good and bad directors" http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory

The worth of this theory has been questioned by some critiques. But, it is
particularly useful as a starting point for the interpretation of some films.

Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial
apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter
uses paint and a paintbrush. It is a medium for the personal artistic expression
of the director. The film theorotician, André Bazin, explained that: auteur
theory was a way of choosing the personal factor in artistic creation
as a standard of referencce, and then assuming that it continues and even
progresses from one film to the next.

Sometimes this theory is useful when analysing the works of
actors who are working within the ‘star system’. For example, it is possible
to interpret Terminator 3 in relation to the canon of films created
with Arnie in them.

Auteur Theory suggests that the best films will bear their
maker’s ‘signature’. Which may manifest itself as the stamp of his or her
individual personality or perhaps even focus on recurring themes within the
body of work. Alfred Hitchcock plays this idea up in most of his movies where
he makes sure that he appears on screen in a brief cameo spot. This became
a game that viewers would engage in, waiting to find out when he would appear.

Alfred
Hitchcock is one of the first names who comes to mind when talking about auteur
theory. His most famous films are Vertigo, Psycho,
The Birds and Rear Window. Hitchcock’s story telling techniques
were renowned for their intelligent plots, witty dialogue, and the smattering
of mystery and murder. He has been attributed with revolutionizing the thriller
genre. The reason for his success, however, was not the genre that he was
working in, but rather the skill which he exhibited in the film-making. ie
his treatment of the subject in terms of the shots he uses and how he combines
them are more important than the genre. One of Hitchcock’s best-known screen
moments is the terrifying shower scene in Psycho. This shot features
70 distinct shots in less than 1 minute. They are fused together in such a
way that it is difficult to distinguish between the Montage and the
Mise-en-Scène.

Montage: putting together the shots of the film (also known as cutting
or editing). This term is used to suggest that the meaning of two different
shots can create a deeper meaning by the juxtapositioning of the images. Montage
is useful in conveying a lot of information over a very short period of time.

Mise-en-Scène: the term used to describe what actually goes into a
shot and how the camera shoots it.

One of the themes that recurs quite frequently is the idea that
innocent people can get caught up in circumstances beyond their control. Sometimes
the characters are guilty of lesser crimes than the ones they are accused
of but they are innocent of the crimes that are being attributed to them.
Refer to North by Northwest (1959). In this film Roger Thornhill (played
by Cary Grant) is mistaken by foreign agents to be a fictional character which
had been created by a US government agency (Hitchcock suggests this is the
CIA). Unwittingly he is forced to take on this character in earnest in order
to escape pursuit.

Hitchcock began his career in England, his most famous movie
being The 39 Steps (1935). He soon caught the attention of Hollywood
and he was lured there in the 1940s. Hitchcock became a household name with
his TV series called Alfred Hitchcock Presents which
ran for a decade (1955-1965). He was the host and producer and
he became a famous celebrity. His particular voice, his body shape, and his
eccentric mannerisms became instantly recognizable

Most of his ‘thrillers’ owe a lot to the power of suspence.
As a director, he leans towards a presentation style which lets the audience
into more than he lets his characters into. This means that part of the puzzle
is to figure out what will happen when the character learns as much as we
know.

Film is a voyeuristic medium. We passively sit back and watch
what goes on on screen and constantly make value judgements about it. Hitchcock
often makes it clear that even though we are a "respectable" audience
we are also taking part in a peep show (which is highly unrespectable). Hitchcock
brings this observation home to us in his movie Rear Window which
features a character played by Jimmie Stewart called L.B. Jeffries. He has
broken his leg and he spends much of the movie watching what happens in the
neighbouring apartment building.

The ethical dilemma presented in the film is overtly signalled
when one character says to Jimmy Stewart:

"What do you want of me?"

This may well have been said directly to the audience. In this
same scene, this character breaks the cinema convention of not acknowledging
the audience by turning directly to the camera. When filmmakers allow this
to happen, they are overtly signalling the constructed nature of the medium
and encouraging you not to be seduced by the ‘realistic’ effect that they
have created.

Hitchcock was also well-known for his choice of heroines. They
were typically beautiful blondes who appear to be respectable characters,
but they when they are in danger or trapped in some way, they react in an
animalistic way (Sometimes this manifests itself in criminal activities).
In To Catch a Thief, Grace Kelly is a cat burglar and in Psycho,
Janet Leigh's character steals $40,000 and gets murdered.

One of the remarkable things about Alfred Hitchcock is that
he worked through all of the technological changes in cinema. He began his
career in silent film, worked with sound in the British film industry, moved
to America where he worked in the Hollywood system, firstly in black and white
and later, in colour. His contribution to each of these four areas was significant.

One of the problems with auteur theory is that it tends
to diminish the role that others play in the creation of a film. Hitchcock
himself downplayed the role that others played in his films. He was often
critical of his actors and usually did not give his screenwriters the recognition
that they deserved.

Other auteurs
You may be interested in finding out something about some of the other famous
auteurs for yourself.

Jean Renoir made extraodinary advances in
French cinema during the 1930s. Some of his films include Boudu Saved
from Drowning (1932), Toni (1934), The Crime of M. Lange (1935),
Grand Illusion (1937), and The Rules of the Game (1939). His
films were socially sensitive and comic in style.

Ingmar Bergman gained world reknown with
films such as Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal
(1957), Wild Strawberries (1958) and The Virgin Spring (1959).
Like Hitchcock, Bergman was interested with some of the anxieties that dominated
life during the 1950s and 1960s.